Given the amount of interest there's been in 2016's celebrity deaths, I thought it might be a interesting to frame 2017's version as a more competitive "thing". After all, for the reasons we've already discussed, it's unlikely to slow down anytime soon.

Now, I'm not sure there'll be enough interest to actually make it into a competition, but just in case there is, here are the rules (which I really want to keep short and simple):

1. 10 names, must have some sort of notability;
2. Once you've posted your list, that's it. No revisions.
3. Each one that dies in 2017 scores (120 - age of death);
4. Bonus of 25 points for any one of them being murdered;
5. That's it.

As the new year is almost upon us, let's have a closing date of 15th January 2017 so that everyone interested has a chance. I'll probably do mine early on January 1st so as to minimise my choices dying this year and maximise my potential for the whole year of 2017, but feel free to post your entries now or at any time up until the deadline (heh).

Marc, I can take your list as is or you can revise it if you like. I think you're the only person to venture 2017 predictions so far, but if I've missed anyone please put me right.

JimBentley wrote:Given the amount of interest there's been in 2016's celebrity deaths, I thought it might be a interesting to frame 2017's version as a more competitive "thing". After all, for the reasons we've already discussed, it's unlikely to slow down anytime soon.

Now, I'm not sure there'll be enough interest to actually make it into a competition, but just in case there is, here are the rules (which I really want to keep short and simple):

1. 10 names, must have some sort of notability;
2. Once you've posted your list, that's it. No revisions.
3. Each one that dies in 2017 scores (120 - age of death);
4. Bonus of 25 points for any one of them being murdered;
5. That's it.

As the new year is almost upon us, let's have a closing date of 15th January 2017 so that everyone interested has a chance. I'll probably do mine early on January 1st so as to minimise my choices dying this year and maximise my potential for the whole year of 2017, but feel free to post your entries now or at any time up until the deadline (heh).

Marc, I can take your list as is or you can revise it if you like. I think you're the only person to venture 2017 predictions so far, but if I've missed anyone please put me right.

Elliott Mellor wrote:There's a few people who I am fairly certain will die in 2017, but I'm not morbid enough to compete in something that relies on people dying.

I expressed a similar opinion last year but I think the best way to get over it is to become actively involved in the whole death scene (although not by killing people yourself - that's probably a bad thing). Of course, you might not want to become quite so heartless. It's totally your call.

4.1. If you personally murder somebody named on your list, or pay (or offer inducements) for them to be murdered, no points will be scored.

Feel free to murder people not on your list though.

What if they are murdered but the murder remains unsolved? Do you have to be convicted by a jury to lose the points?

Also, can't you get together with someone else and murder the people on each other's lists?

Also, if we're just posting on here, is there any rule about copying? It seems quite gameable. Maybe you could encourage early entrants by saying that no celebrity can be named twice. Just an idea - it's your game.

4.1. If you personally murder somebody named on your list, or pay (or offer inducements) for them to be murdered, no points will be scored.

Feel free to murder people not on your list though.

What if they are murdered but the murder remains unsolved? Do you have to be convicted by a jury to lose the points?

Also, can't you get together with someone else and murder the people on each other's lists?

OK. I'm pretty much relying on anyone entering not to murder anyone, whether it be someone on their list or not. I don't think that's too much to ask, do you? I'm sure even you can go a year without murdering someone.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Also, if we're just posting on here, is there any rule about copying? It seems quite gameable. Maybe you could encourage early entrants by saying that no celebrity can be named twice. Just an idea - it's your game.

I don't want to make it that someone can't be named twice as there's going to be significant overlaps anyway. It's in your interest to make unique picks of course, as if you're right, only you will get the points.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Also, can't you get together with someone else and murder the people on each other's lists?

In a Strangers On A Train vein? Indeed, good point.

The more you look at it, this rule just hasn't been very well thought out at all.

That's true, I really should have thought more about it more. I'm just going to have to trust that none of you murder anyone, or enter into any kind of murder pacts or anything like that. I realise this may be difficult for some but please people - control your urges.

As for the copying thing - and as an incentive to enter early - there'll be a bonus of 25 points if you're the first entrant to list someone who dies in 2017.

Had fifteen on the list so took out some of the younger ones - Angela Lansbury, Bob Dylan, John Major, David Attenborough and Her Maj were the ones I neglected. Feel free to nick them (even though some are quite obvious picks). If I've somehow managed to miss the deaths of any of them, fill them in with any of those 5 of your choice.

After studying the form book.
Can I swap Paul Gascoigne and Carol Vorderman for Pele and Bobby Charlton.
Gascoigne is a hopeless alcoholic who has just been kicked down the stairs of a hotel and CV is soon to embark on a solo flight around the world

Although entries don't close for a couple of weeks, here's a quick round-up of the top picks so far. It should probably be said that in the interests of getting in first with a choice, this is probably a bit distorted (certainly I removed four of these people from my list once I saw they'd been chosen):

I think there has to be an element of pretty death fame.
I guessed Debbie Reynolds would die soon after her daughter after Carrie fishers heart attack.
But at least she is famous.
I mean you could put down Michael Bubles son but that just seems sick to me.
Then making death lists is hardly normal.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Would this have been a valid guess? Because it did occur to me. Also, someone like this.

I dunno really. Admittedly I didn't specifically guard against this sort of thing, but could plausibly have disallowed both choices as - to be brutal - their only notability arose from their being close to death, rather than anything they had done before.

Similarly, I'm not sure what course I would have taken had somebody entered with a list of people on Death Row. As many of them have their dates of death already scheduled (notwithstanding the possibility of appeals/delays, or commutation to a lesser sentence, i.e. not death) it would be have to be seen as a serious bending of the rules. Never fear though, for 2018 I'll try to think all these things through beforehand.

Mark Deeks wrote:My personal opinion is that time/date of death should be determined by the time zone that the deathee physically is residing in at the time of their deathage.

Where they're residing? So if somebody normally resident from Blighty dies from an OD in a seedy Tokyo nightclub at 4am their date/time of death should be 7pm the previous day? We need clarity on this issue before I plan my usual New Year's Eve murder spree.

I'm not sure the Mandela effect is really a thing, or if it is whether most things that are ascribed to it are genuine.

I might think someone is dead because they are really old and haven't heard about them for years. That's nothing to do with a collective misremembering. Or sometimes someone has a heart attack or some other bout of ill-health and you kind of think they might die. Then later when you forget exactly what happened, you think they are dead. Nothing to do with a collective misremembering, which is what I understand the Mandela effect to be (although maybe I'm misremembering what the Mandela effect is).

Ian Volante wrote:I read that BBC article about the Mandela effect, and empathised with almost none of it. People just don't pay attention. Also, I'm pretty sure I read virtually the same article years ago.

I've been reading a bit more about the Mandela Effect lately and one thing that strikes me is that it tends to be younger people (<30) that subscribe to it actually being a "thing". Possibly - or not - it may be linked to the fact that most of the examples that are trotted out again and again are rooted in things that happened either before these people were born, or when they would be too young to reasonably have a memory of them.

And I know I went on about this the previous time we talked about it, but the main thing that bothers me about the whole concept is its name. I seriously don't know anyone that thought, or would have any reason to think that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s. Where does this even come from? Assuming that you were alive in the 1990s and 2000s and took any sort of notice - however cursory - of the news, how could you possibly have thought this? It's bizarre.